[asterisk-dev] Zap channel naming is way too confusing

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Sat, Feb 25, 2006 at 10:56:31AM +0000, Bob Goddard wrote:
> On Saturday 25 Feb 2006 10:04, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> > On Sat, Feb 25, 2006 at 03:55:14PM +0800, Dinesh Nair wrote:
> > > On 02/24/06 00:24 Tilghman Lesher said the following:
> > > >always specify the absolute channel, in a format such as:
> > > >Zap[ss/rrr](nnn), e.g. Zap[3/4](52) or Zap/52.
> > >
> > > i like this idea conceptually, just that the TECH/SPAN-CHAN nomenclature
> > > should be maintained instead of introducing square brackets. this keeps
> > > it consistent with the naming conventions for SIP and IAX2 used within
> > > asterisk and would make parsing channel identifiers a whole lot easier in
> > > external scripts or AGI.
> >
> > But spans are an internal implementation detail of the zaptel channel.
> >
> > Not to mention that span number can easily change just as well. Merley
> > loading ztdummy before  other modules changes everything, you know.
> 
> Personally, I'd like to see different line types given different naming
> conventions. TDM, PRI, BRI and dummy should not all come under ZAP.
> Will it mean additional work, bloat and maintenance? Yes, but as I see
> them all being different carrier hardware then I don't see why not.
> If nothing else, it will help stop confusion. I can't help feeling
> though, that I am in a minority of one.

How would you define a "technology"?

Both BRI and PRI are ISDN. Analog and ISDN are indeed different. But I
don't see anything that inhenrently different betwen PRI and BRI.

On the analog front, FXO and FXS channels are quite different. I'm not
sure if you can say the same thing about TE and NT ISDN ports.

ztdummy does not generate any channel whatsoever. It does generate a span
because it has to talk to zaptel. Up until now span numbers were not an
issue so the fact that it has generated a span did not change the
asterisk config (only the zaptel config). It is just an argument against
exposing spans in the first place.

Also note that spans really matter for ISDN channels (PRI/BRI) and not
really for analog channels. At least as far as functionality exposed
through chan_zap goes.

-- 
Tzafrir Cohen     icq#16849755  +972-50-7952406
tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com  http://www.xorcom.com